South Asia’s First Gay Temple Wedding

Courtney Mitchell, left, and Sarah Welton, wed on Monday at a Hindu temple on the outskirts of Kathmandu.

Nepal may be a failing state on some counts, but when it comes to gay rights, it has become a beacon in South Asia. On Monday, the Himalayan nation became possibly the first country in the region to celebrate a public wedding for a lesbian couple.

Courtney Mitchell, a 41-year-old college professor, and Sarah Welton, a 48-year-old lawyer, both from Denver, Colorado, tied the knot at a temple in the outskirts of capital Kathmandu. The wedding took place at the famous temple of Dakshinkali, a powerful Hindu goddess, where hundreds of devotees throng daily to sacrifice animals to appease her.

“The wedding was wonderful. We are very happy,” said Ms. Mitchell, who donned the traditional Nepali bridegroom attire of daura suruwal and topi—long trousers, a shirt and a cap. Ms. Welton was resplendent in a red sari and traditional Nepali jewelries and adornments, according to the Nepali gay rights activist who helped organize the wedding. The couple exchanged garlands amid traditional music. “I felt very happy,” said the bride. The couple spoke to India Real Time in a telephone interview on Tuesday.

Ms. Mitchell said that though their marriage had been sanctified before the gods, it has yet to gain legal standing. Same-sex marriage is not allowed in Colorado, she said, so the couple may consider going to states like Iowa for a legally recognized union after returning to the U.S. Iowa allowed same-sex marriage in 2009, joining few other states like Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Even though Nepal is wracked by multiple-hour power cuts, a fuel crisis and political limbo over the drafting of a new Constitution, the country has become steadily more progressive socially since it ousted its 240-year-old Hindu monarchy in 2008, persuaded Maoist rebels to put down arms and join electoral politics, and became a republic. Although same-sex marriage is not presently recognized in Nepal, the country’s Supreme Court ruled against discrimination against gay people in 2007.

But, still, a same-sex wedding in a temple is an unprecedented sign of acceptance.

Sunil Babu Pant, a gay legislator from a Communist party in Nepal’s 601-member Constituent Assembly, which is also playing the role of Parliament for the moment, said Monday’s wedding was the second international same-sex wedding in Nepal but the first to be held in public.

In 2010, Mr. Pant helped a British man and his Indian partner enter into wedlock. He says Nepal is emerging as a favorite wedding celebration and honeymoon destination for the LGBT—lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender—community. “Nepal has progressed a lot compared to other South Asian countries in giving equal rights to LGBT people and Nepalis have been very accommodating to diversity,” Mr. Pant said. “It is not like the U.S. and India where religious extremists oppose LGBT rights.”

Mr. Pant said Nepal’s government has set up a committee to look into legalizing same-sex marriage in Nepal and the committee is due to submit its recommendations soon. “All the major political parties in Nepal support LGBT rights and even the religious groups haven’t opposed,” he said.

Mr. Pant, who also runs Blue Diamond Society, a Kathmandu-based LGBT rights group, and Pink Mountain Travels & Tours, which caters to the LGBT community, said more than 70 people attended Monday’s wedding, which got widespread national and international coverage. “There was singing, dancing and lots of fun,” Mr. Pant said.

The newlyweds said they plan to spend a week in Nepal on a “fun trekking program,” helping street children in Kathmandu, and working with oppressed caste groups before they head back to the U.S. Ms. Mitchell, who worked in Nepal in the late 1990s and early 2000s, says the couple plan to return to Nepal sometime in the future with their adopted daughter to continue their work in Nepal’s development sector.

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